Does a landlord HAVE to have this information of mine?
I just moved into a large apartment complex in California. All utilities we must pay for ourselves. The water, sewage and gas used by the entire complex is metered as one and split up into separate bills for each apt., and your share is based on how many people live in your apt. All other utilities are your responsibility. The office people are requesting we give them our electricity account number. Do we legally have to give them this information? Can any harm be done if they have it? Just wondering. Thanks!
They probably want to monitor and make sure you are paying your bills.
They don’t need that information. That is your responsibility and not the property’s. There is no reason they should need to make sure you pay your bills. Their only concern should be if you’re paying your rent on time.
I suspect the reason they want it is so that when you leave, especially if in the middle of he night, they have the account number to return the electricity back into their name so they can control it. If you signed the lease, but put the account in someone else’s name (roommate, parent), they may have a hard time tracking it down. It may be something new with the utility also, that they need the number, not the name. I would get their request in writing with an explanation and an assurance the number would be held in confidence and only used for specific purposes.
Do you legally have to give it to them, if it is mentioned in your lease, yes. It is not illegal for them to ask for it.
They probably need the number in order to verify service is on and monitor if payment is delinquent and/or the service is about to be shut off.
They do have the right to evict a tenant if the tenant fails to maintain electric service or any other utility.
In my state, I have a form from the electric gas companies that tenants must sign with the lease agreement. It allows the utility companies to notify me only if the service is delinquent and a shut off notice is sent. This way I can send the proper notice to cure or quit and begin the eviction process.
I once had a tenant whose gas service was shut off for non-payment – no hot water, no heat and no gas for the stove/oven. She had 2 young children. She could not understand that without that very essential service, she could not stay – she had made the place uninhabitable per the law by not having gas service.
Do the tenants have to sign it? No, but then I don’t have to rent to them either.
Can any harm be done if they have it, no.
They have a right to this information so they can monitor if bills are being paid. They don’t want electric turned off in their unit if you don’t pay